Snohomish, WA USA: Vandal also stole part of family's heart

Someone took the steel salmon from a sculpture to memorialize Peter Skerratt, who died in November 2007.

By Alejandro Dominguez
Herald Writer

SNOHOMISH — Peter Skerratt died in a freak accident by falling from his bicycle on a slippery Sixth Street Bridge the night of Nov. 22, 2007.

Frank Gosser built a memorial for his friend near the Pilchuck River where he and Skerratt used to go fishing as kids.

Now the memorial has been vandalized.

The memorial, a stainless steel sculpture bolted to a 2-ton boulder, had a metal salmon welded on top. This past Thursday Skerratt’s mother, Beverly Skerratt, 72, was bringing flowers to the site when she discovered that the salmon was stolen.

“This is not only devastating to my family, but to anyone who loved my son,” she said. “He would do anything to help you.”

She has brought flowers at least once a month for the past three years.

The silver salmon is about 4 feet long. It has “Peter M.S.” and the dates of Skerratt’s birthday — “5-5-63” — and his death — “11-22-07” — on the fish’s body.

“It’s like they have taken him from us all over again,” said Carol Sprague, 52, Skerratt’s sister.

Sprague said the monument helps bring comfort to her mother and the family.

The family said the memorial was complete when they visited three weeks ago.

The family has not filed a police report because they are hopeful that someone will return the missing fish.

“Our goal is to have it restored. No questions asked,” Sprague said. “They did not only take a piece of metal, they took something from my family.”

The family suspects that someone outside the community did the act. In the past they have seen coins being put on the cross by Skerratt’s friends, who say they still miss him.

“I just want to think it was done out of a stupid act and not for malice,” Sprague said. “I want to believe that.”

Skerratt wrote a poem as a message to the individual who has the fish: